The Mysterious Planet

Subtitles

There is a planet very close to

us that is still mysterious to us.

A planet which has areas so hostile

that missions to those areas have

resulted in some of the most horrific

disasters humans have witnessed.

Despite mapping the entire surface

of Mars with a resolution of just

200 meters per pixel, most of

this mysterious planet has only

been mapped at a resolution of

1.5 kilometers per pixel. This

mysterious planet, is Earth. Despite

centuries of exploration and research

by billions of people, we still

know very little about our own planet.

In fact, one of the most mysterious

things about Earth, is one of

the most abundant.

The ocean is huge! And by huge,

I mean HUGE! Over 80% of the

ocean is completely unexplored

by humans. To put that into perspective,

if that 80% were the land, every

country except Russia and China

would be completely unexplored,

even the entirety of North America,

South America, Europe, Australia,

and even Africa!

But why is water so hostile?

Isn't it required for life?

Water is great until you have

too much, and while there isn't

too much water on Earth, there

can certainly be too much water

above you. This makes it incredibly

difficult to explore the ocean.

You see, while you can just walk

outside and explore the land,

you can't just go jump in the

ocean and swim around. Sure, you

can swim around near the surface,

but if you want to go any deeper

than a few meters, you're going

to need something to breath because,

fun fact, you can't really breath water.

But, even with some sort of breathing

apparatus to help you breath,

you still can't go deeper than

a few dozen meters. Fortunately,

submarines, or rather submersibles,

were specifically designed to

be submersed in water, making

them a great tool for exploring

the ocean. But...there's a problem.

Actually...there's far more than one.

Submersibles are incredibly

not good for exploring the ocean.

They require a significant amount

of knowledge and skill to operate

and maintain, so you're probably

not going to be building one yourself.

And, not only are they extremely

expensive themselves, they often

require an entire ship for deployment as well.

And, even if you can get past

all the first obstacles, most

submersibles can only go a few

hundred or maybe a couple thousand

meters which leaves nearly 70

percent of the ocean beyond reach.

But there's an even bigger problem.

Most submersibles, designed for

research and exploration, can

only travel a mere 3 knots which,

to be clear, is about the average

walking pace. This isn't a huge

issue since, only being able to

see a few meters in front of you,

you'll probably not want to go

any faster. Except...with such

a slow speed and low visibility,

even if you had a fleet of a

thousand submarines, it would

take a year just to glance over

everything. Well...to glance over

the floor of the ocean, not even

counting all the space between

the surface and the ocean floor.

To properly study everything would

take far longer. Not to mention

the troublesome fact that only

a few dozen exploration submersibles

have even been built, and many

are no longer in service. Granted,

there are a lot of robotic underwater

vehicles, but most of them are

used for industrial purposes,

not exploration, and many designed

for exploration still can't go

much deeper than a human.

To put into perspective just

how unexplored the ocean is, more

people have been to space than

have visited the Titanic wreck

site, and even fewer have been

to the deepest part of the ocean.

We know so little about our own

ocean that around 2 thousand new

marine species are discovered

every year or more than 5 every

single day.

But, despite how much we still

don't know about our own planet,

there are still some incredible

things which we do know.

The ocean is home to the longest

mountain range on Earth, the Ocean

Ridge which has a total length

of 80,000 kilometers, about 9

times longer than the Andes.

The ocean is also home to the

largest canyon, the Mariana Trench,

which is about 70 times larger

than the Grand Canyon.

The ocean is home to Mauna Kea

, the tallest mountain from base

to peak, being about 5% taller than Mt.

Everest's height above sea level.

The ocean is home to about 80%

of Earth's volcanic eruptions.

And as far as animals are concerned,

the ocean is home to the largest

and heaviest animal, the most

intelligent animal apart from

humans, the largest invertebrate

and the animal with the largest

eyes (which we currently have

no confirmed videos or photos

of), and tons of other animals

which are amazing! There are over

240,000 known marine species which

is more than 6 times the number

of species of mammals, birds,

reptiles, and amphibians combined!

Not to mention the possible 2

million others which have yet

to be discovered. So I think it's

safe to say that the ocean is

home to some of the most diverse

and strangely designed creatures

on Earth. Just a few of these

being the barreleye fish which

has a literal transparent head.

Talk about "I can see right through you"...

The oarfish which looks like

some sort of metallic robot and

is the longest bony fish.

This is not the creation of

some ancient civilization, it's

the creation of the white-spotted

pufferfish.

The Japanese spider crab which

is enough to give me nightmares.

The giant isopod which...

The black dragonfish which is

uh...uh...

This thing which looks like

some sort of deep sea lizard fish

something. Oh wait...that's what

it's called, well minus the something part.

This thing which also seems

to struggle eating spaghetti or...

wait that's not spaghetti.

This guy who somehow has RGB

lighting on himself.

And thousands of other insane

looking creatures which unfortunately

just didn't make the list, mainly

because...there are thousands.

I think it goes without saying,

but the mere fact that only 20%

or less of the ocean has been

explored, and most of this being

the deep ocean, there is no telling

what amazing creatures, ancient

artifacts, geological features,

and other stuff is down there.

I mean, the black dragonfish wasn't

discovered until 1906 and the

barreleye fish wasn't discovered

until 1939 with many other odd

looking marine creatures discovered

just within the past couple decades.

As fascinating as space is,

there is an arguably more diverse

and surprising world far closer to us.

Although, it feels like anything

I look at in the natural world

just keeps getting more amazing

the more I read or even discover

on my own. As impressive as some

of the creations of humans are,

I always seem to find that it

completely fades into nothingness

when compared to the creations

that came far before them. Even

as niche and unnatural as RGB

lighting, "Nature had it first."